Chapter 12 - § 12.1 RULES OF COMPETENCY

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 12.1 RULES OF COMPETENCY

➢ Competency; Generally. See Chapter 8, "Lay Witnesses."

Colorado

➢ Personal Knowledge. "A witness may not testify to a matter unless evidence is introduced sufficient to support a finding that he has personal knowledge of the matter." CRE 602. Personal knowledge may be proved by the witness's own testimony. Id. The requirement of personal knowledge is subject to the provisions related to opinion testimony by expert witnesses. Id.; see also CRE 703. A trial court has broad discretion to admit non-expert summary witness testimony because the threshold for "satisfying the personal-knowledge requirement is not very high and may be inferable from sources other than the witness . . . and from the total circumstances surrounding the matter that is the subject of the witness's testimony." Murray v. Just in Case Bus. Lighthouse, LLC, 2016 CO 47, ¶ 33 (citations and quotations omitted).

➢ Personal Knowledge; Experts. See Chapter 7, "Expert Witnesses."
➢ Children. See Chapter 8, "Lay Witnesses."

➢ Religious Opinions of Witnesses. "No person shall be deemed incompetent to testify as a witness on account of his opinion in relation to the Supreme Being or a future state of rewards and punishments. . . ." C.R.S. § 13-90-110; CRE 610. "Evidence of the beliefs or opinions of a witness on matters of religion is not admissible for the purposes of showing that by reason of their nature his credibility is impaired or enhanced." CRE 610. A witness may be questioned in regard to the witness's religious opinions if the questions relate to something other than the veracity of the witness. People v. Lybarger, 790 P.2d 855, 859 (Colo. App. 1989), rev'd on other grounds, 807 P.2d 570 (Colo. 1991); see also C.R.S. § 13-90-110.

➢ Judges or Jurors as Witnesses. A presiding judge or member of the jury may not testify as a witness at that same trial. CRE 605 and CRE 606(a); but see Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, 137 S. Ct. 855 (2017) (where Sixth Amendment rights are implicated, a judge may consider evidence of juror's statement concerning reliance on racial stereotype).

➢ Competency of a Convicted Felon. A witness is competent to testify even if the witness has been convicted of a felony. See C.R.S. § 13-90-101; see also People v. Ziglar, 45 P.3d 1266, 1268-69 (Colo. 2002).

Federal

➢ Personal Knowledge. FRE 602 is the same as the Colorado rules.

➢ Personal Knowledge; Experts. See Chapter 7, "Expert Witnesses."

➢ Determination of Competency. In federal

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